United front organizations are managed primarily by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), but the united front strategy is not limited solely to the UFWD. All CCP cadres are required to engage in "united front work".[7] CPPCC is considered to be the highest-ranking united front organization, being central to the system. Outside of China, the strategy involves numerous front organizations, which tend to obfuscate or downplay any association with the CCP.[8][9][10]
In late 1935, the Communist International (Comintern) instructed the CCP to establish the broadest possible anti-fascist united front.[11]: 15 At a meeting in December 1935, the CCP Politburo resolved to reach understanding, seek compromise, and establish relations with all nations, parties, and individuals who opposed imperial Japan.[11]: 15
The two organs historically affiliated with united Front are the United Front Work Department and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). According to Yi-Zheng Lian, the organs "are often poorly understood outside China because there are no equivalents for them in the West".[12] Inside China, leaders of formal united front organizations are selected by the CCP, or are themselves CCP members.[13] In practice, united front member parties and allied people's organizations are subservient to the CCP, and must accept the CCP's "leading role" as a condition of their continued existence.[7]
The United Front Work Department is headed by the chief of the secretariat of the CCP's Central Committee. It oversees front organizations and their affiliates in multiple countries such as the Chinese Students and Scholars Association,[14][15] which ostensibly helps Chinese students and academics studying or residing in the West, enjoining them to conduct "people-to-people diplomacy" on behalf of the People's Republic of China.[12]
The united front is a political strategy that the CCP has used to influence beyond its immediate circles while downplaying direct associations with the CCP.[16][7][17] In theory, the united front existed to give front organizations and non-Communist forces a platform in society.[18] Historically, the CCP co-opted and re-purposed non-Communist organizations to become part of the united front through tactics of entryism.[19] However, scholars describe the contemporary united front as a complex network of organizations that engage in various types of surveillance and political warfare for the CCP.[20][21][22] Scholar Jichang Lulu noted that united front organizations abroad "re-purpose democratic governance structures to serve as tools of extraterritorial influence".[23] Scholar Martin Thorley states that the united front's "main purposes are to neutralize threats to the party and ensure desirable scenarios for the party".[24] Additionally, many non-governmental organizations in China or connected to China have been described as government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGOs) that are organized under the CCP's united front system.[20][25]
According to a 2018 report by the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission, "United Front work serves to promote Beijing's preferred global narrative, pressure individuals living in free and open societies to self-censor and avoid discussing issues unfavorable to the CCP, and harass or undermine groups critical of Beijing's policies."[14] According to scholar Anne-Marie Brady, "united front work is a task of all CCP agencies (some more than others) as well as a basic task of every CCP member."[26] Nearly all Chinese embassies include staff that are formally tasked with united front work.[27] Embassies and consulates also maintain networks of "consular volunteers" that engage in united front work.[28]
Scholar Jeffrey Stoff also argues that the CCP's "influence apparatus intersects with or directly supports its global technology transfer apparatus."[29][30] In 2019, the united front's aggregate budget across multiple institutions was estimated at over $2.6 billion which was larger than the Chinese Foreign Ministry's budget.[31]
Starting in January 2020, united front-linked organizations in Canada and other countries were activated to purchase, stockpile, and export personal protective equipment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China.[35][36] In September 2020, the CCP announced that it would strengthen united front work in the private sector by establishing more party committees in regional federations of industry and commerce (FIC), and by arranging a special liaison between FICs and the CCP.[37]
Overseas Chinesehometown associations are often cultivated for united front work.[38][39] During the APEC United States 2023 summit in San Francisco, united front groups, including hometown associations, coordinated with Chinese embassy officials to instigate violence against Tibetan, Uyghur, and Chinese dissident protesters.[40]
In 1939, Zhou Enlai espoused "nestling intelligence within the united front" while also "using the united front to push forth intelligence".[41] According to Australian analyst Alex Joske, "the united front system provides networks, cover and institutions that intelligence agencies use for their own purposes". Joske added that "united front networks are a golden opportunity for Party's spies because they represent groups of Party-aligned individuals who are relatively receptive to clandestine recruitment."[41] Peter Mattis, head of the Jamestown Foundation, stated, "United front groups are used – very specifically – to hide the Ministry of State Security".[42] According to French journalist Roger Faligot, the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre led to the "growing use of party organizations, such as the United Front Work Department and friendship associations, as fronts for intelligence operations."[43]
^Suli, Zhu (2009), Balme, Stéphanie; Dowdle, Michael W. (eds.), ""Judicial Politics" as State-Building", Building Constitutionalism in China, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 23–36, doi:10.1057/9780230623958_2, ISBN978-1-349-36978-2
^Cooper, Sam (8 June 2022). Wilful Blindness: How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents infiltrated the West. Optimum Publishing International. ISBN978-0-88890-330-3.
^ abJoske, Alex (2022). "Nestling spies in the united front". Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Hardie Grant Books. pp. 24–39. ISBN978-1-74358-900-7. OCLC1347020692.
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